The Doctor's Tale by: Marc Platt directed by: Ken Bentley: Doctor Who and the Canterbury Tales

The Doctor’s Tale stars William Russell as Ian Chesterton and the First Doctor, and Maureen O’Brien as Vicki and Barbara Wright, with Gareth Armstrong as Geoffrey Chaucer, Joseph Kloska as Sir Thomas de Wensley, and Alice Haig as Isabella.  It was written by Marc Platt, directed by Ken Bentley, and released in October 2014 by Big Finish Productions.

 

You guys remember The Crusade right?  Four part story from Season Two that sees the Doctor and company back in a period of history with four episodes of political intrigue.  Well let’s take that, but sprinkle in a bit of the story structure from The Keys of Marinus, plus the backdrop of Geoffrey Chaucer’s writings and the historic events of the time and you have The Doctor’s Tale in a nutshell.  Marc Platt’s script is steeped in history which oddly enough is something he’s never really done, but with the way a lot of the writing goes you feel like there is going to be some sort of alien reveal.  It’s similar to the historic Philip Hinchcliffe scripts which had the alien reveal as written by Platt and while I do love his writing, and he makes the setting pop, this weird expectation leads you to the end just wanting more.  Stories that make you want more are usually good, but the way this one works around it just feels like it is going to stop almost in the middle of the story.  The first episode itself could have been heavily cut down as it doesn’t feel very cohesive, but by the second episode things start to fit into place.  The first episode does a lot of exploration of the setting and tries to set up the main plot, but then Platt twists it so that the King is evil.  Geoffrey Chaucer also doesn’t feature nearly as much for Gareth Armstrong being credited on the front cover, and the whole The Canterbury Tales subplot is set up by Barbara telling one of them to the king.  I was actually thinking that it would turn out to be the Doctor who writes The Canterbury Tales.

 

The story structure does however feel like a series of tales even if it is telling just one cohesive plot.  The first episode, “The Lord of Misrule” is a tale about the Doctor being a clown in the court of Henry IV, the second is “The White Hart”, a travelling story that really only works as a transition and while it is better paced than the first episode, and it is pretty forgettable.  The third episode, “Sanctuary”, does some interesting ideas with church’s being used as a way for the titular sanctuary from persecution.  It’s an idea that really works well for the story overall to give us character exploration, but the final episode “The Empty Crown” resolves the political drama set up by the first episode, by establishing who is the real king of England and it a good piece of political drama for the story to go down.

 

The casting of the story, having six actors to fill the story’s characters, is a stroke of genius from Platt as many characters remain unnamed and in a smaller role.  This allows the actors to put on a performance and not having to worry about the listener noticing the reusing of actors, and the structure of using a narrator helps some of the story go on with just a few lines.  It’s effective for filling in the audience on events and keeping Russell and O’Brien on their toes.  Yes William Russell and Maureen O’Brien are the leaders of this audio reprising their television role.  Maureen O’Brien actually steals the show as while it’s nearly fifty years past her time on the show, she can still reach that falsetto she used when playing Vicki.  She’s a complete joy to listen to when she gets scenes and it helps that she and William Russell, who is also doing his best as Ian and the Doctor, have this energetic working relationship with each other that shines through.  The rest of the cast isn’t half bad, but it is Alice Haig as Isabella, who has this great relationship with Vicki, that steals the show.  Isabella is a free spirit who is political prisoner for Henry IV after her husband Richard II was put into exile.  Her story arc is the center of the political intrigue as she and Vicki hire a traveler to take them to her.  It’s something that you would think the Doctor would be doing in The Romans.  The encapsulation of these characters is really what propels this story forward and makes up for Platt’s less than usual standards of writing for this story.

 

To summarize, The Doctor’s Tale is a nice tale that actually gets you just a little in the mind of the Christmas spirit.  This is if only that it takes place in the snow and it’s at a really good historic setting which Platt excels at.  The plot itself is one of Platt’s weaker efforts as it meanders towards a lackluster conclusion that never really wraps up.  It’s a lot of style over substance with Geoffrey Chaucer barely featuring in the story, especially not enough to warrant crediting him on the front cover.  The cast is stellar with many characters being represented by a small cast which of course works well leading to a pretty good story.  75/100.